Three interdisciplinary areas of applied research are available to the research fellows of the program Research Training@VDTC: Virtual Product Development, Virtual Process Engineering and Virtual-interactive Training. These three research areas cover a wide spectrum of virtual reality applications including applied IT-technologies on one side and human-machine interfaces and education and training systems on the other side. Depending on their personal training profiles, the research fellows are given the opportunity to expand their personal qualifications by selecting one or more of these areas to gather experience.
Virtual Product Development
Virtual reality technologies are increasingly being integrated in product development. Currently, in the early phases of development (e.g. design reviews, variant selection) the use of these technologies is an important time and cost factor, since the number of physical prototype could be reduced often. Development trends are moving toward integrating virtual technologies in the entire process chain. The attendant tasks (e.g. providing consistent VR data models, taking advantage of potentials for intuitive interaction) also increasingly necessitate that individuals working on a project have interdisciplinary skills which the Research Training@VDTC is systematically transferring to the young researchers.
Key aspects:
- Virtual engineering
- Mechatronics
- Electrical engineering
- Sensor technology
- Robotics
Virtual Process Engineering (Digital Factory and Logistics)
The overall objective behind the digital factory is to ensure that no production facility is planned, constructed or operated without complete prior digital coverage and verification of all important and safety-relevant factory processes. This vision is already reality in sub areas of the life cycle of products and processes. Consequently, the RTD personnel of tomorrow must be prepared for the new generation of digital engineering and production processes.
Key aspects:
- Planning of factories and material flow systems
- Maintenance
- Production
- Distribution
Virtual Interactive Training
Interactive 3-D contents provide new remarkable possibilities for imparting knowledge in virtual learning environments/ e-learning: Humans and machines interact in the virtual world. Apart from pure product presentation, the use of these innovative VR technologies for educational and training purposes has great economic potential. These innovative learning methods are successfully applied especially by the branches mechanical and plant engineering, power engineering and medical technology.
Key aspects:
- Knowledge transfer
- Industrial training
- Didactics